Young Teens Probably Not Having Sex, Study Says

You can stop worrying about your kid, at least for a second. The journal Pediatricsreported that younger teens have a lot less sex than the media might lead you to believe, and have been for decades. Just 2.4 percent of 12-year-olds said they'd had sex. Overall, teens seem to be waiting longer to have sex (a third of teens had had sex by the time they were 16; 71 percent were sexually active at ages 18 and 19) and being smarter about STI prevention and contraception; teen pregnancy is at its lowest in 40 years.

In fact, the teenagers across the board are less likely to be sexually active than they were 25 years ago. But the best news Pediatrics found is 80 percent of teenagers who first became sexually active at age 16 used contraception the first time and a year later, 95 percent used it. For teens between ages 12 and 14, the use of contraception was a lot less common. Kids in that age group also took longer than kids in their late teens to start using contraception. When kids younger than 12 were surveyed, the majority of them said their first sexual encounters were coerced.

Still, it seems teenagers are becoming smarter about their sexual decisions and protecting their bodies.